President Trump removed a contentious obstacle to House Republicans’ defense-spending package with his Wednesday announcement banning transgender people from serving in the military, but the measure may still have issues moving forward.

Trump announced that he would ban transgender people from serving in the military in any capacity after a House panel failed to add an amendment from Rep. Vicky Hartzler to a four-bill defense-spending package. The amendment would have barred the military from paying for gender-reassignment surgery. Its failure left some conservatives unhappy and unsure that they would vote for the defense bill.

However, Trump’s move—which is strongly opposed by Democrats and drew many critics Wednesday—removed that issue from contention among House Republicans. Particularly for social conservatives, the ban was more than what they expected and it greases the wheels for a defense package that includes funding for a border wall, a key Trump campaign promise.

“I think it goes beyond what we needed to solve the problem,” Rep. Trent Franks said. “It solves the concern that we had that somehow the military-defense bill was being used as sort of a mule for all of the left-wing social experiments that they can’t get heard any other way.”

The move from Trump comes just as Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker announced in a Wednesday meeting of the conservative group that he and Speaker Paul Ryan had struck a deal. Walker had been pushing for leadership to bring all 12 appropriations bills to the floor in a single package before the August recess. Leaders, however, maintained that they don’t have the votes to do so.

Instead, Ryan promised Walker that he will bring the House’s budget blueprint, as well as the remaining eight appropriations bills, for a House vote in September. In exchange, Walker dropped his push for an amendment to the defense package that would have brought all 12 bills forward.

The two announcements remove the largest problems facing House leaders in passing the defense bill, but there still may be some in their ranks who will vote against the bill.

Others who had been pushing for a complete slate of spending bills may still vote against the defense package, for instance. Some members of the House Freedom Caucus were pushing for votes on all 12 bills and may not want to green-light an inflated defense budget without assurances of domestic or mandatory spending cuts.

“We had almost unanimous support for the 12 appropriations bills and we do not understand the move toward the four-bill approach,” HFC member Dave Brat said. “We lose eight bills with conservative policy built in that everyone worked so hard on.”

Members of the group are also pushing an amendment that would eliminate the budget-analysis division of the Congressional Budget Office. Although the amendment is a long shot, failing to win adoption could dissuade even more Freedom Caucus members from supporting the spending package.

Still, Franks, who is also in the Freedom Caucus, said he believes that the package will pass despite some objections.

“There might be some others who vote against the package because of their very valid fiscal concerns,” he said. But he added that in his opinion, “To place the defense of this country and the fiscal survival of this country juxtaposed against one another is a terrible mistake. These are two wings of the same plane, and to lose one of them is to crash.”

Leadership has been framing the measure as a substantive win heading into the August recess: It includes $1.6 billion for the construction of a wall along the southern border, sharply increases military spending and troop pay, and even increases funding for the Capitol Police. They also note that although the bill in its current form is unlikely to become law, passing it will increase the House’s leverage heading into negotiations with the Senate because it shows that the House can actually pass their spending bills.

Rep. Charlie Dent, an appropriations cardinal whose military-construction bill is one of the measures in the package, said he believes this vote may actually do the opposite. The measure provides $621 billion in military spending, but that number is likely to fall in a deal with the Senate.

“We’re raising expectations on a bill that will never become law,” he said. “What concerns me most is all the people who are told to vote for this initial launch, for the takeoff—a large number of them will not be there for the landing, for the real bill that counts.”

The same may end up being true with the money for a border wall. Republican leaders will ultimately need Democratic votes to pass any spending bill, and Democrats are unlikely to ever support funding for a border wall. So the question remains whether Republicans are setting themselves up for a letdown by pushing for border-wall funding now if it will be stripped out of a final measure.

Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro said members of her party are also unlikely to support the bill because it raises military spending above sequestration without turning off the automatic spending caps. Doing so, she said, would trigger automatic, across-the-board spending cuts, unless Congress can agree to a bipartisan budget deal.

“This is a gimmick,” she said. “People are going to vote for a pig in a poke. They don’t know what the hell they’re voting for because the numbers are not real.”

"President Trump signed a sweeping spending bill Friday afternoon, averting another partial government shutdown. The action came after Trump had declared a national emergency in a move designed to circumvent Congress and build additional barriers at the southern border, where he said the United States faces 'an invasion of our country.'"

Source:

REDIRECTS $8 BILLION

Trump Declares National Emergency

6 days ago

THE DETAILS

"President Donald Trump on Friday declared a state of emergency on the southern border and immediately direct $8 billion to construct or repair as many as 234 miles of a border barrier. The move — which is sure to invite vigorous legal challenges from activists and government officials — comes after Trump failed to get the $5.7 billion he was seeking from lawmakers. Instead, Trump agreed to sign a deal that included just $1.375 for border security."

Source:

COULD SOW DIVISION AMONG REPUBLICANS

House Will Condemn Emergency Declaration

1 weeks ago

THE DETAILS

"House Democrats are gearing up to pass a joint resolution disapproving of President Trump’s emergency declaration to build his U.S.-Mexico border wall, a move that will force Senate Republicans to vote on a contentious issue that divides their party. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Thursday evening in an interview with The Washington Post that the House would take up the resolution in the coming days or weeks. The measure is expected to easily clear the Democratic-led House, and because it would be privileged, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would be forced to put the resolution to a vote that he could lose."

Source:

MILITARY CONSTRUCTION, DRUG FORFEITURE FUND

Where Will the Emergency Money Come From?

1 weeks ago

THE DETAILS

"ABC News has learned the president plans to announce on Friday his intention to spend about $8 billion on the border wall with a mix of spending from Congressional appropriations approved Thursday night, executive action and an emergency declaration. A senior White House official familiar with the plan told ABC News that $1.375 billion would come from the spending bill Congress passed Thursday; $600 million would come from the Treasury Department's drug forfeiture fund; $2.5 billion would come from the Pentagon's drug interdiction program; and through an emergency declaration: $3.5 billion from the Pentagon's military construction budget."

Source:

TRUMP SAYS HE WILL SIGN

House Passes Funding Deal

1 weeks ago

THE DETAILS

"The House passed a massive border and budget bill that would avert a shutdown and keep the government funded through the end of September. The Senate passed the measure earlier Thursday. The bill provides $1.375 billion for fences, far short of the $5.7 billion President Trump had demanded to fund steel walls. But the president says he will sign the legislation, and instead seek to fund his border wall by declaring a national emergency."